Rajniesh Duggall: I don’t think the mythological genre can ever be over

Actor Rajniesh Duggall says that today the audience has a lot more content to watch. However, TV will never lose its audience completely, he says.

“There’s an audience which is exposed to a lot of stuff and they have obviously become an audience who are aware of what’s happening in the world and what is the better content and progressive content. That is the urban audience. Also, the percentage has increased over time and Covid coming in with a lot of OTT presence so the consumption of TV has reduced or has become different. Definitely, there is still an audience which likes a little old school content. I personally feel, as a human being, as long as your content has emotion it can catch the audience. Emotion is important. So somewhere the makers have to get that emotion right,” he says.

He adds that mythological and fantasy shows will always do well.

“Kantara, did really well, It is a mythological show. If you see in fantasy, then there is Bahubali, Mahabharata and Ramayana being made, probably a Meluhha being made. There are more being made. So I don’t think the mythological genre can ever be over because again it’s something which as Indians and as people who believe in God or super power, they always look forward to. They have that faith and if it’s made nicely, it gives the correct message and it will be watched,” he says.

In the name of women’s empowerment some shows portray women being pushed to the extreme limits, until she gets an awakening and there is a change. Talking about this trend, the actor says,

“I think Yeh Hi Sanjog hai! Of course, on television, a lot of shows like 80% are on women empowerment and they are women driven or women centric stories. They are bound to show them being empowered. So, for that, you have to show them first as the underdog and then bring them up. For any story like that, even for a man, it has to be first, you will show him being tortured and then give a rise to your character. So, it’s like the rise of the underdog. That’s when you catch the emotion of the public. That’s a probably a 100 year old story writing trick but it works because it captures the emotions. It’s just that it should be done in a different way every time. It cannot be repetitive. Base can be the same but it has to be done differently.”